The best way to Celebrate Springfield is to enjoy our city on your own time. Use the filter below to learn about the number of activities you can do in Springfield, no matter how much time you have! With so many opportunities available, you’re sure to find something you and your family will enjoy!
Take a tour downtown Springfield while hunting down over 30 art sculptures! Public art has proven itself to play a major role in rejuvenating public spaces and local economies. Sculpture Walk Springfield is an initiative aimed at creating such a museum, by displaying quality sculptures in public places in Springfield on an annually rotating schedule. Each collection of sculptures will be in place from April to March of the next year.
Take a walking tour of the Battle of Springfield that tells the story of when Union forces defended the Springfield territory during the Confederate attempts to gain supplies and high-ground access in January 1863. Twelve markers placed throughout the battleground commemorate where defenses were organized, troops gathered supplies, injured soldiers were hospitalized and homes were burned.
Sac River Mountain Bike Trails This 300-acre Springfield-Greene County city park offers over 14 miles of interconnecting single-track trail through the woods in northwest Springfield. Built by volunteers in 1996, it’s popular with mountain bikers from beginner to advanced, and for trail running and hiking too. The perimeter trail is about 2 miles, and a cell phone tower marks the northeast corner of the perimeter.
Go hiking and bird watching at Valley Water Mill Lake on their 1.5 mile trail; 189 bird species have been sighted!
Valley Water Mill Lake is a 13-acre lake where you can try your hand at catching largemouth bass, bluegill and channel catfish from the boardwalks and fishing piers. While you’re there, enjoy a hike and birding on the 1.5 mile trail.
Dirt 66 Trails at Fellows Lake While Fellows Lake itself offers a plethora of activities in its beautiful setting, the trails here are the best our city has to offer for new mountain bikers. Much of the trail is considered beginner level, while some of the downhill is more intermediate. It’s easy to pick a section to ride, and come back another day for some new dirt!
Ward Branch Greenway Trail is currently in two sections that are planned to eventually connect. One is segment connects Burrell Center Lake to Twin Oaks Park/substation on Republic Road and on to The Library Center. The other section has two miles that connects Wanda Gray Elementary School to River Bluff Cave Archeology Museum (across the road from Rivercut Golf Course). This section is also very wooded and scenic as it meanders back and forth along Ward Branch Creek.
The Trail of Tears is unique among planned and existing trails in the region for its historical and cultural significance at both the local and national scale. As a segment of the cross-country Trail of Tears Historical Trail, the corridor documents the forced migration of thousands of Cherokee people from their homelands in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee to Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma. Existing segments of the trail in the region elaborate on this history through interpretive signage and, where possible, use a natural surface to preserve the character the Cherokee likely encountered nearly 180 years ago.
South Creek Greenway Trail runs east-west through the middle of Springfield and was designated as a National Recreation Trail by the National Park Service and American Trails in 2006. The trail starts at McDaniel Park Trailhead at National Avenue and Sunset Street and links to Nathanael Greene Park/Close Memorial Park, the Springfield Botanical Center, Sherwood Elementary School, Carver Middle School and many neighborhoods and destinations. The trail, via an on-street connection, also connects to Wilson’s Creek Greenway at Tal’s Trailhead.
